it’s just a park, or ways to say good bye

There’s a small park just outside our house. It’s an ordinary park just like any other park. For years, I’ve enjoyed taking short morning strolls here. Soon, we’re going to move away, and my daily morning walks will have to move as well. I was on such a walk this morning. But this time, I saw the park in a new way.

I realized that even though I may be back in this area again some day, the reality is that I’ll never be back here, at this park. I’ll never walk here again in my life. It’s a humbling experience. It’s a feeling of finality and inevitability. It’s kind of strange.

Our move (not that it’s a such a big deal) represents a new chapter in our lives. It’s part exciting adventure, part scary. It’s made up of new hopes and new dreams. Whatever the future holds for us, one thing is for certain, it will forever remove us from the past.

But that’s OK, because that’s what the future is supposed to do. There will be new experiences, new people and new places. There will be a new park near our house. It’s just that it won’t be this one. Perhaps it will be better. Certainly it will be different.

So today, I find ways to say good bye to this park. I say good bye to its lawns, its walkways and the people I got to meet here on the way. I say good bye to the view of the hills and the bay far off in the distance. To the clear blue skies when it’s sunny and to the fog that envelopes the trees when the weather is bad.

I guess today, I wanted to make it official. And by officially saying good bye to the park, I say good bye to the present chapter of my life. You first must finish this chapter, before moving on to the next. So here is how I will remember this park.

It’s just a park for playing soccer in a hot afternoon sun. It’s just a park were my son learned to walk and later ride a bike. It’s just a park were the morning dew glistens bright on the grassy fields. It’s just a park where the moon looks huge on warm summer nights. It’s just a park where tanbark smells of childhood. It’s just a park, and this is just my life.

2 Responses to it’s just a park, or ways to say good bye

profound – and indeed, because we are so scared of saying goodbye sometimes, we don’t begin new chapters in our life. trying to end one chapter of mine, need to say bye to my “park” (tho really hidden amidst the smog here where i live haha :))
stay well Vlad